Plato wrote that “necessity is the mother of invention.” This still holds true today as developers, engineers and testers need their ever-growing test cases to be automated. They need to be testing every day, multiple times a day with a variety of tests: smoke, regression, functional, user acceptance, etc. Because of the sheer volume of test cases and device permutations, a DIY lab just can’t handle the load and, as a consequence, more organizations are moving to the cloud. In fact, when talking to our own customers, more than 90 percent of them have started to move their operations to the cloud within the last two years. Cloud-based testing allows teams to manage the pace and demands that come with test automation. It also provides the necessary flexibility, performance, and availability needed to ensure quality throughout the software delivery lifecycle (SDLC). Compared with DIY/on-prem solutions, cloud-based solutions offer a multitude of advantages.

Real User Conditions

And we’re just scratching the surface with these benefits! On-prem solutions introduce a number of limitations that significantly impact testing strategies. From environmental restrictions, such as Wi-Fi availability, to the manual upkeep of testing infrastructures, on-prem solutions do not support DevOps teams at the speed they need as they work to improve quality.At Perfecto, we offer the only cloud-based platform for web, mobile, and IoT software testing that allows teams to automate their testing and keep their DevOps pipeline running smoothly. Let’s dive further into the benefits of cloud-based solutions to understand why they should be the de-facto choice for enterprises today.

Testing Across Multiple Versions, Devices and Carriers

Every year, developers and DevOps teams brace for the release of new operating systems and devices. These all need to be tested on almost immediately to ensure quality and high performance. In 2017 alone, Apple released four different iOS versions while Windows released five different OSes across mobile and desktop environments.

OS Versions

From an on-prem perspective, testing across multiple versions, devices and carriers is extremely challenging. Case in point: once teams have upgraded to a new OS, there is no going back to a previous version with on-prem. This makes it difficult for DevOps teams to ensure that quality and application performance remain consistent.

Waiting in line on release day?

Another strike against on-prem solutions is that they can’t secure the newest device version quickly as they require a trip to the store to purchase it before their customers can start testing on it. This set-up not only makes it difficult for the providers to maintain hundreds of different devices for hosting tests, their customers are also at a disadvantage because the ability to test on new devices is not always readily available.This is where cloud-based solutions always win. Over the years, our team at Perfecto has developed long-standing relationships with carriers and device vendors which means we receive access to new devices and OSs the same day they are released. For our customers, this means they can spend more time testing across multiple versions, devices, and in multiple use case scenarios, almost instantaneously.

Faster Results = Increased Velocity and Better Apps

In our conversations with customers, the ability to achieve faster results is one of the reasons – if not the reason – they decide to move testing to the cloud. Cloud-based testing fuels automated testing, supporting the need for optimum test coverage. This is because cloud-based test grids make it possible for teams to run multiple tests at the same time. As a result, the need to wait for one test to be completed before running another is eliminated. It’s also important to keep in mind that with a cloud test grid, updates to testing frameworks happen automatically whereas on-prem solutions require a significant amount of time dedicated to upkeep alone.

On-demand Parallel Execution

In addition, unlike on-prem solutions, the capacity of the test infrastructure is virtually unlimited with cloud-best testing solutions. This is invaluable when DevOps teams have to increase testing or have particularly resource-heavy tests to run.

Testing Across Geographical Barriers

As more organizations adopt DevOps, they’re finding there is much more fluidity to how they work – as well as where they work. While teams are becoming more distributed across offices and locations, there’s a growing need for them to be able to simultaneously work on the same code at the same time, managing it all across development, testing, deployment and so on. The cloud allows those teams to work together in real-time – regardless of their location – to make the appropriate updates and changes. This ensures accelerated time-to-market and high performance/quality.

The Power of Analytics

Lastly, don’t forget the importance of pairing the right analytics tools with a cloud set-up. While a cloud-based lab is great for high performance and cost-effectiveness, unless teams conduct strong analysis, the value will not be fully realized. However, by leveraging the cloud and pairing it with top-notch analytics, DevOps teams can extend their Agile strategies and benefit from the flexibility, performance and availability needed to ensure quality throughout not only the testing process, but the entire SDLC.

Cloud-based Testing is Here to Stay

DevOps teams are under constant pressure to release faster, improve quality and keep costs under control. As a result, we find ourselves in an environment in which Agile methodologies and DevOps can’t succeed without the support of cloud services. The cloud has enabled teams to grow and expand beyond the barriers and limitations presented by on-prem solutions. As new innovations such as biometric identification and voice activation become standard app features, cloud-based testing solutions will surpass on-prem solutions. They are already miles ahead.

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